9 November 2006 Edition

Ballymurphy republicans remembered

Daithí Doolan, delivered the main address

Despite the biting November cold, hundreds of Belfast republicans turned out
on Sunday, 5 November, for the annual Greater Ballymurphy Commemoration
parade.

Men, women and children - many of whom were the relatives of local
republicans who lost their lives in the course of the struggle - marched
from the Memorial Plaque on the Ballymurphy Road to the recently-opened
Garden of Remembrance at the Upper Springfield Road.

The parade was headed up by a colour party of young republican men and women
from the area.

The Garden, which was opened just last year, is testament to the sacrifice
of the many people from the 'Murph' who have always stood firm despite the
heavy toll they paid in their struggle against British rule.

Their commitment to a free Ireland is inscribed in gold lettering on the
marble memorial stones that form the backdrop to the memorial.

At the ceremony in the Garden, chaired by Sinn Féin councillor Marie Cush,
local republican Patrick Adams read the Roll of Honour while Caillín
Donnelly read the Roll of Remembrance.

Daithí Doolan, a native of Cork who represents Sinn Féin on Dublin City
Council, delivered the main address. Expressing the solidarity that
republicans throughout Ireland have with Ballymurphy, Doolan said: "This is
a proud area; you are a proud people." He stressed that the criminals and
anti-community elements that have done so much to damage the reputation of
Ballymurphy would not succeed.

Doolan said, "The republican people of the area, who withstood British guns
and loyalist death squads and the worst they could inflict over four decades
of war, will come through this latest test of their resolve."